France beat Wales 20-18 following a bizarre and chaotic end to its final Six Nations match Saturday as Camille Chat scored a try 20 minutes after full time had elapsed. The clock showed 99 minutes and 55 seconds when replacement hooker Chat dotted the ball down after nine penalty scrums, and Camille Lopez slotted over the conversion as France saved its place in the second pot ahead of the 2019 World Cup draw.
Wales had victory in its sights when Leigh Halfpenny's sixth penalty earned it a 18-13 lead but France won a key five-meter penalty scrum with one minute left.
Eight scrums later, after Wales prop Samson Lee was shown a yellow card and a series of controversial incidents and decisions, France finally got over the line for the second time.
Lopez scored two penalties and two conversions, making sure Les Bleus will finish the championship in third or second place and leaving Wales in fifth ahead of the Ireland v England clash.
In Edinburgh, Vern Cotter ended his three-year tenure as Scotland's head coach as his side beat Italy 29-0 for a bonus point victory that completed their most successful Six Nations campaign in 11 years.
Tries by fly-half Finn Russell, replacement centre Matt Scott and wingers Tim Visser and Tommy Seymour earned Cotter's side a convincing win against a hapless Italy, which failed to trouble the scoreboard for the first time in two years — since a 29-0 defeat against France in Rome in March 2015.
That kept the Scots in with a chance of its first ever second-placed finish, depending on other results later on the final day of the championship, but ensured three Scottish victories out of five for only the second time in the Six Nations era, matching the tally achieved under Frank Hadden in 2006.
In watching his side bounce back from last week's 61-21 mauling against England at Twickenham, Cotter finished his tenure with 19 victories from 36 matches. The 55-year-old Kiwi — who moves on to Montpellier in the French Top-14 when Glasgow's Gregor Townsend replaces him in June — is the first Scotland coach in the professional era to record a win ratio of 50% or more.
As for Italy, having produced promising first-half performances but dramatic second half fade-outs in its previous four games, it failed to get a point on the board in either half, completing a miserable maiden Six Nations campaign for coach Conor O'Shea, his side finishing bottom of the table without even a solitary bonus point. — Agencies
